Gov. Rick Perry has quietly replenished his depleted campaign war chest since he abandoned his presidential bid in January, fueling speculation that the longest-serving governor in Texas history will seek yet another term in 2014. …

Despite the disclaimers, a gaggle of national media followed Rick Perry Saturday, anticipating a forthcoming presidential announcement. If so, The Response was an early foray into the national spotlight. No other Republican candidate, declared or otherwise, has held a larger event.

The Response, conceived and initiated by the governor, also was one of the most explicit appeals to conservative Christians that GOP presidential hopefuls have made in the fledgling 2012 campaign.

That appeal establishes Perry’s evangelical bona fides in the hearts and minds of a group of people who make up more than half of the voters in some of the GOP primaries.

The nation is in crisis, and government is inadequate to do much about it, Gov. Rick Perry warns.

Perry plans to elicit that divine assistance during a day of prayer, fasting and pleas for forgiveness in the company of several thousand like-minded souls at Reliant Stadium next Saturday. But as he continues to mull a run for the White House, where do his religiosity and his politics intersect?

While Perry spokesman Mark Miner could not verify an Internet transcript of Perry’s remarks, he said it contained nothing inconsistent with the governor’s belief that “every Christian is called into ministry” whether serving as a church leader or in the workplace, and that “God provides opportunity throughout peoples’ lives to do his will.” …

Gov. Rick Perry’s Aug. 6 day of prayer and fasting at Reliant Stadium is generating significant heat nationwide, with critics protesting the exclusively Christian focus of the event and Perry’s partnership with the controversial American Family Association, which advocates against gay rights.

Expressing objections on a variety of religious and cultural grounds, some opponents have organized a protest on Facebook, while others are urging the nation’s 49 other governors invited by Perry to boycott the event.